13. temple http://www.thefreedictionary.com/temple , Word History: Words that are identical in form do not always derive from the same source, and when they have different sources they are usually considered different words. The temple that refers to a place of worship, for example, does not have the same origin as the temple that refers to a side of the forehead. The temple where one worships comes from Latin templum, itself derived from the Indo-European root *tem-, "to cut, divide." Latin templum probably referred originally to the fact that temples were on sacred ground that was "divided" or separated from ordinary ground. The temple of the head comes from the Latin word tempus, "temple of the head." Its origin is not certain; some have thought it to be a special use of the homonymous word tempus "time" as a translation of Greek kairios, "(proper) time, opportunity, vital spot," but there is no hard evidence for this. What is known, and not uninteresting in itself, is how tempus eventually became temple in English. In Latin, the plural, tempora, was more frequently used than the singular tempus (it being more common to talk about paired body parts together rather than singly). There was a large class of Latin nouns ending in -a in the singular, and this led to a reinterpretation of tempora as a singular in later Latin, where it was also altered to *tempula. This became temple in Old French, whence English temple (of the head) was borrowed, first appearing in 1310. The classical Latin form survives in the English adjective temporal (as in temporal bone or temporal muscle).

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fiction , Word History: To most people "the latest fiction" means the latest novels or stories rather than the most recently invented pretense or latest lie. All three senses of the word fiction point back to its source, Latin fictiō, "the action of shaping, a feigning, that which is feigned." Fictiō in turn was derived from fingere, "to make by shaping, feign, make up or invent a story or excuse." Our first instance of fiction, recorded in a work composed around 1412, was used in the sense "invention of the mind, that which is imaginatively invented." It is not a far step from this meaning to the sense "imaginative literature," first recorded in 1599.

15. legendhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/legend , Usage Note: Legend comes from the Latin adjective legenda, "for reading, to be read," which referred only to written stories, not to traditional stories transmitted orally from generation to generation. This restriction also applied to the English word legend when it was first used in the late 14th century in reference to written accounts of saints' lives, but ever since the 15th century legend has been used to refer to traditional stories as well. Today a legend can also be a person or achievement worthy of inspiring such a story --- anyone or anything whose fame promises to be enduring, even if the renown is created more by the media than by oral tradition. Thus we speak of the legendary accomplishments of a major-league baseball star or the legendary voice of a famous opera singer. This usage is common journalistic hyperbole, and 55 percent of the Usage Panel accepts it.

16. statushttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/status , Usage Note: In a recent survey of the Usage Panel, 53 percent of the Panelists preferred the pronunciation (stæt'Λs), 36 percent preferred (ste'itΛs), and 11 percent said they use both pronunciations. The pronunciation (ste'itΛs) is the older, more traditional pronunciation, and it remains the most common one in British English.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/group , Usage Note: Group as a collective noun can be followed by a singular or plural verb. It takes a singular verb when the persons or things that make up the group are considered collectively: The dance group is ready for rehearsal. Group takes a plural verb when the persons or things that constitute it are considered individually: The group were divided in their sympathies. See Usage Note at collective noun.http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/group.html , Word Usage When group is used to refer to a collection of individuals regarded as a unit or a whole, a singular verb is used: The group has decided not to go on the afternoon tour, i.e., everybody in the group has decided unanimously to skip that tour. When the members of a group are regarded as separate individuals or factions, a plural verb is used: The group have been arguing all morning about going or not going, i.e., some members want to go and others do not.

>> The dance group is ready for rehearsal.

* "The [d-] dance group are ~ " >> "The [ð-] dance group is ~ " /mGC

>> The group were divided in their sympathies.

* "The [d-] group was divided in its sympathy." >> "The [ð-] group were divided in their [ð-] sympathies." /mGC

>> The group has decided not to go on the afternoon tour.

* "The [d-] group have decided ~ " >> "The [ð-] group has decided ~ " /mGC

>> The group have been arguing all morning about going or not going.

* "The [d-] group has been arguing ~ " >> "The [ð-] group have been arguing ~ " /mGC

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impeach , Usage Note: When an irate citizen demands that a disfavored public official be impeached, the citizen clearly intends for the official to be removed from office. This popular use of impeach as a synonym of "throw out" (even if by due process) does not accord with the legal meaning of the word. As recent history has shown, when a public official is impeached, that is, formally accused of wrongdoing, this is only the start of what can be a lengthy process that may or may not lead to the official's removal from office. In strict usage, an official is impeached (accused), tried, and then convicted or acquitted. The vaguer use of impeach reflects disgruntled citizens' indifference to whether the official is forced from office by legal means or chooses to resign to avoid further disgrace.Word History: Nothing hobbles a President so much as impeachment, and there is an etymological as well as a procedural reason for this. The word impeach can be traced back through Anglo-Norman empecher to Late Latin impedicre, "to catch, entangle," from Latin pedica, "fetter for the ankle, snare." Thus we find that Middle English empechen, the ancestor of our word, means such things as "to cause to get stuck fast," "hinder or impede," "interfere with," and "criticize unfavorably." A legal sense of empechen is first recorded in 1384. This sense, which had previously developed in Old French, was "to accuse, bring charges against."

19. layhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/lay , Usage Note: Lay ("to put, place, or prepare") and lie ("to recline or be situated") have been confused for centuries; evidence exists that lay has been used to mean "lie" since the 1300s. Why? First, there are two lays. One is the base form of the verb lay, and the other is the past tense of lie. Second, lay was once used with a reflexive pronoun to mean "lie" and survives in the familiar line from the child's prayer Now I lay me down to sleep; lay me down is easily shortened to lay down. Third, lay down, as in She lay down on the sofa sounds the same as laid down, as in I laid down the law to the kids. • Lay and lie are most easily distinguished by usage. Lay is a transitive verb and takes a direct object. Lay and its principal parts (laid, laying) are correctly used in the following examples: He laid (not lay) the newspaper on the table. The table was laid for four. Lie is an intransitive verb and cannot take an object. Lie and its principal parts (lay, lain, lying) are correctly used in the following examples: She often lies (not lays) down after lunch. When I lay (not laid) down, I fell asleep. The rubbish had lain (not laid) there a week. I was lying (not laying) in bed when he called. • There are a few exceptions to these rules. The phrasal verb lay for and the nautical use of lay, as in lay at anchor, though intransitive, are standard.

Usage: In careful English, the verb lay is used with an object and lie without one: the soldier laid down his arms; the Queen laid a wreath; the book was lying on the table; he was lying on the floor. In informal English, lay is frequently used for lie: the book was laying on the table. All careful writers and speakers observe the distinction even in informal contexts

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/set , Usage Note: Originally set meant "to cause (something) to sit," so that it is now in most cases a transitive verb: She sets the book on the table. He sets the table. Sit is generally an intransitive verb: He sits at the table. There are some exceptions: The sun sets (not sits). A hen sets (or sits) on her eggs.

21. emotionalhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/emotional , Usage: Although emotive can be used as a synonym of emotional, as in sense 4, there are differences in meaning that should first be understood. Emotional is the more general and neutral word for referring to anything to do with the emotions and emotional states. Emotive has the more restricted meaning of `tending to arouse emotion', and is often associated with issues, subjects, language, and words. However, since emotional can also mean `arousing emotion', with certain nouns it is possible to use either word, depending on the slant one wishes to give: an emotive/emotional appeal on behalf of the disadvantaged young.

22. percentage / percentA)http://www.thefreedictionary.com/percentage , Usage Note: When preceded by the, percentage takes a singular verb: The percentage of unskilled workers is small. When preceded by a, it takes either a singular or plural verb, depending on the number of the noun in the prepositional phrase that follows: A small percentage of the workers are unskilled. A large percentage of the crop has spoiled.

B)http://www.thefreedictionary.com/percent , Usage Note: Statistically speaking, a quantity can be increased by any percentage but cannot be decreased by more than 100 percent. Once pollution has been reduced by 100 percent, for example, it ceases to exist. In defiance of this logic, however, advertisers sometimes refer to a 150 percent decrease in lost luggage or a new dental rinse that reduces plaque on teeth by over 300 percent. Presumably what is implied by the latter is that the new rinse is three times as effective as some other rinse, but such constructions are still subject to criticism as illogical. • Percent can take a singular or plural verb, depending on how the quantity being described is viewed. Very often what determines the form of the verb is the noun nearest to it. Thus one might say Eighty percent of the legislators are going to vote against the bill or Eighty percent of the legislature is set to vote the bill down. In the second sentence the group of legislators is considered as a body, not as individuals. When percent is used without a following prepositional phrase, either a singular or plural verb is acceptable.

% : "zero by zero" (per/GC/S/abT + cent/C1) percent

>> Eighty percent of the legislators are going to vote against the bill.

23. sackhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/sack , Word History: The ordinary word sack carries within it a few thousand years of commercial history. Sack, which probably goes back to Middle Eastern antiquity, has a long history because it and its ancestors denoted an object used in trade between various peoples. Thus the Greeks got their word sakkos, "a bag made out of coarse cloth or hair," from the Phoenicians with whom they traded. We do not know the Phoenician word, but we know words that are akin to it, such as Hebrew aq and Akkadian saqqu. The Greeks then passed the sack, as it were, to the Latin-speaking Romans, who transmitted their word saccus, "a large bag or sack," to the Germanic tribes with whom they traded, who gave it the form *sakkiz (other peoples have also taken this word from Greek or Latin, including speakers of Welsh, Russian, Polish, and Albanian). The speakers of Old English, a Germanic language, used two forms of the word, sæc, from *sakkiz, and sacc, directly from Latin; the second Old English form is the ancestor of our sack.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fire , Word History: Primitive Indo-European had pairs of words for some very common things, such as water or fire. Typically, one word in the pair was active, animate, and personified; the other, impersonal and neuter in grammatical gender. In the case of the pair of words for "fire," English has descendants of both, one inherited directly from Germanic, the other borrowed from Latin. Our word fire goes back to the neuter member of the pair. In Old English "fire" was fyr, from Germanic *fur. The Indo-European form behind *fur is *pur, whence also the Greek neuter noun pur, the source of the prefix pyro-. The other Indo-European word for fire appears in ignite, which is derived from the Latin word for fire, ignis, from Indo-European *egnis. The Russian word for fire, ogon' (stem form ogn-), and the Sanskrit agni-, "fire" (deified as Agni, the god of fire), also come from *egnis, the active, animate, and personified word for fire.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fix , Regional Note: Fixing to ranks with y'all as one of the best known markers of Southern dialects, although it occasionally appears in the informal speech and writing of non-Southerners as well. Fixing to means "to be on the verge of or in preparation for (doing a given thing)," but like the modal auxiliaries, it has only a single invariant form and is not fully inflected like other verbs. Its form is always the present participle followed by the infinitive marker to: They were fixing to leave without me. Semantically, fixing to can refer only to events that immediately follow the speaker's point of reference. One cannot say, "We're fixing to have a baby in a couple of years." The use of fixing to as an immediate or proximate future is very common in African American Vernacular English, and is one of many features that this variety of English shares with Southern dialects.

* will >> would /mGC* shall >> should /mGC* can >> could /mGC* may >> might /mGC

26. dilemmahttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/dilemma , Usage Note: A dilemma is a situation in which a choice must be made between alternative courses of action or argument. Although citational evidence attests to widespread use of the term meaning simply "problem" or "predicament" and involving no issue of choice, 58 percent of the Usage Panel in our 1999 survey rejected the sentence Historically, race has been the great dilemma of democracy. • It is sometimes claimed that because the di- in dilemma comes from a Greek prefix meaning "two," the word should be used only when exactly two choices are involved. Nevertheless, 64 percent of the Usage Panel in our 1988 survey accepted its use for choices among three or more options.

Usage: The use of dilemma to refer to a problem that seems incapable of a solution is considered by some people to be incorrect. To avoid this misuse of the word, an appropriate alternative such as predicament could be used.